


Under the clouds, beyond the sea

by Seashore_peppermint



Category: BioShock 1 & 2 (Video Games)
Genre: AU, Character Death Fix, Drama, Elizabeth dead? never heard of it, F/M, Fluff, One Shot, Romance, and everything in between, under the sea like the song but with less Disney and more murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:56:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22684342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seashore_peppermint/pseuds/Seashore_peppermint
Summary: Hello! Basically this is where I will dump my one shots of an AU in which Elizabeth Comstock did survive the events of Burial at Sea thus met Wynard, to make it doable I modified a teensy bit the temporal lines but hopefully it works!!! It's kind of a mix of everything and I will add updates from time to time (don't worry is not a lineal story thus there's no risk of it being unfinished) and I accept suggestions!!Altlas go to splice yourself
Relationships: Elizabeth/Jack (BioShock)
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter 1

Elizabeth blinked when she saw the gift that the blonde was giving her, a flower, a moonflower to be more precise.

People said that Langford had brought them to Rapture, that in the beginning a few ones had been sold at a ridiculous high price, a luxury item that even the brunette couldn’t have afforded with her singer salary. She recognized it because they appeared in one of her favorite books as a children, one that the songbird had read so many times that even the covers were wrinkled in places; one about how a powerful and courageous warrior had perished in a battle against the evil and in exchange for her bravery, her willingness to do the right thing she was turned into a beautiful field of moonflowers..

Elizabeth smelled it with a smile on her lips; the scent was sweet, like the gesture that came with the flower. She wondered if he had looked for it after hearing her ramblings about them or if it had been just a coincidence but it was a nice gesture nevertheless.   
“It’s almost surprising isn’t it? To be able to find something so beautiful flourish among this madness. It could have found its end in so many ways but it survived” she said it out loud, still not sure if it was for Jack or herself.

The brunette smiled genuinely at him before pressing it against her chest, Elizabeth felt almost the same childlike giddiness that she had felt the first time she saw the tour Eiffel. “Thank you Jack” there was silence and for a moment the brunette could not speak as she looked at him feeling warmth; warmth that slowly and gradually got poisoned by guilt.

Elizabeth turned around, the choice had been easy but she had come to realize that she had brought a surface flower to the most rotten corner of the sea. Likely she would have felt guilt nevertheless but his kindness only made things worse.  
The only thing that she could do was to make sure of that he’d complete his task, that he’d see the light of the sun again no matter what happened to me. 

Maybe in the end songbirds were meant to sink to make flowers flourish.


	2. Acta est fabula

“And now, the last photography needed to finish my masterpiece… There was a songbird, which flew without notice: a pity, a waste of talent, if only she had learned where her place was”

Elizabeth’s blood froze in her veins when she understood what Cohen’s words implied; for a moment she tensed, her mind telling her to fight Cohen and/or Jack if needed. Apparently she had inherited from Booker the survivor's instinct but then she remembered why Jack was here, and how she was the one which hadn't been meant to survive to begin with.

Wasn’t it poetic? to find death by the hands of the man that she herself brought to Rapture? If only Cohen knew he’d implode with sadistic and twisted joy.

Elizabeth decided that if she had to go it would be with dignity; striking blue eyes meeting brown ones “Make it quick, and painless, if possible”. Her eyes didn’t close, and for once in a long while she felt complete peace, and instead of worries she let her brain fill with a happier image: the vision of Sally and the other girls being freed. Elizabeth could almost feel the corner of her lips curl into the subtlest smile. She wondered if this was what Booker had felt just before drowning ‘Zachary Comstock’ in that river.

La vie in Rose, la mort en bleu; hadn’t she sacrificed Jack’s freedom bringing him here? It was her time to do a little sacrifice.

Jack’s unreadable expression shifted and he turned to Cohen “If you want her you’ll have to go through me !” there was barely contained anger in his voice and Elizabeth opened her eyes in shock; not only because of the turn of events but also because it was the first time that she heard genuine rage in his low and calm voice.

After it was all said and done, and Cohen was dead on the ground Elizabeth asked Jack why he had decided to do that, why he had ‘spared’ her instead of taking the easiest route,

“Well what kind of person I’d be if I did something like that to you Liz?”

Elizabeth didn’t know if to cry or to laugh, what kind of person indeed would do something that terrible? The brunette didn’t know if she was art, but she felt like a nasty piece of work as she looked at him.


	3. Give me a smile that will last forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of angst fluff :) I am going to a con this weekend so no more chapters till Tuesday!

Hephaestus was a nightmare; when they had thought that finally the moment of facing Ryan had arrived the man had put a new barrier, one that could be only resolved by constructing a bloody bomb. The closure felt near, Elizabeth had known that Jack was the one meant to be the key in the fall of Rapture but the details about how were soon to be revealed, or that was what her instinct told her.

After getting the last R-34 cable they went to where the almost assembled bomb was hidden. Jack worked on it while Elizabeth recharged their weapons, so that they could be ready for what was to come. After she was done, she found something besides amno in the bag, the camera that the old fisherman had given Jack back in Neptune’s bounty. The songbird picked it gingerly while she examined it; Elizabeth knew little about photography but it was a pity that it had been only used in order to portrait monstrosities. Quickly, without thinking about it much she turned around and snapped a picture of Jack, who was just turning around to announce that he was done with the bomb.

He looked at her puzzled and Elizabeth then realized what she had done “I just thought that the camera has been used to take pictures of splicers; I wanted to give it a good last use” she explained awkwardly, it had really sounded better in her head hadn’t it? Elizabeth lowered her gaze towards the face of a surprised Jack in sepia colours, she couldn’t help but to look at the picture fondly.

“Well then it’s fair that I do the same” he said with a smile as he extended his hand, asking for his turn with it “You can keep my photo and perhaps I can keep yours?”

“Why would you want that?” said the woman genuinely confused

“Please? Let me take a nice souvenir from here, perhaps the only good thing that can come out of this” replied Jack with his hand extended

“Is that a backwards way to call me beautiful?” replied Elizabeth as she passed it; it was merely a joke but apparently he didn’t share her sense of humor since the only thing he managed was to blurt “Just smile will you?” as he rose the camera in order to hide the blush spreading quickly. Elizabeth laughed softly, aware of that making too much noise could attract splicers as Jack snapped the picture.

“Hey, that’s not fair! I must look terrible” protested the brunette, Elizabeth wasn’t vain but she had never been taken a photo by someone that she was friends with, the only contexts to be behind the camera for her had been as Cohen’s singer.

“Like if that was possible” he thought to himself, but decided against making that point out loud; there was no reason to increase his previous embarrassment after all. He looked at the picture and found himself smiling, in a way that mirrored Elizabeth’s previous expression.

There was a moment of silence, of awareness of the closeness; the briefest hesitation. Elizabeth was hit with the knowledge of that she wanted to kiss that smile in ways that she had wanted little else in her life; the way that she had craved freedom in her tower, the way that she had desired to feel the grass under her toes and the sky above her head in what she had assumed that was her last breath back when Atlas had hit her with the wrench.  
The woman unconsciously leaned towards him a little, from this perspective she could see that he had freckles and that his eyes were nor green or brown but something in between. Elizabeth could feel his breath warm against her own lips, and the warmth that his closeness brought.

It would be so easy

But also so unfair

“We should keep going, this bomb is not going to put itself” she said suddenly rising and taking the camera from Jacks hands a bit too harshly. There was a thousand of emotions expressed in her face for the briefest moment: guilt, desire, love? Regret, lots of it.

When she was on her feet Elizabeth saw that she had accidentally dropped his picture but before she could bend to pick it Jack grabbed the bomb with an unreadable expression “You are right, let’s go” Elizabeth merely swallowed and nodded before leaving.

What she didn’t see is that instead of discarding hers, Jack slid it quickly in his back pocket.


	4. The circle can be broken, and it leads me to you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The heart and the head

“Kill the girl boy, and don’t use weapons would you kindly? That bitch has given me too much of a headache for it to be quick, and lovebirds deserve a more intimate ending”

The command echoed in the room, breaking the silence post Ryan’s death; Fontaine didn’t yell it but it was loud as thunder in Elizabeth’s head. The brunette’s eyes widened as she looked at Jack moving towards her with an expression filled with terror, pure panic that he hadn’t displayed even at their worst encounters, as he advanced with his hands extended towards her, towards her neck.  
Unconsciously Elizabeth readied herself to fight, raising her gun as she pointed directly at his heart; her time with DeWitt and in rapture had provided she with quite the aim, pulling the trigger would save her life without a doubt.

He was only two steps away now and before Elizabeth could act she saw the subtle shift, the relief that had appeared in his expression and when she understood the reason behind such emotion, the brunette merely smiled and dropped the gun. Back at Fort Frolic her expression had been cold and elegant, the dignified acceptance of death delivered from a woman that had ran out of chances to escape it.  
Today she wasn’t accepting her fate out of duty but choosing it out of love, even if her choice seemingly was bringing pain to Jack, the ‘relief’ leaving his expression, being traded for pain as he silently begged her to pick up the gun and stop him. Her smiled remained in place,she had always thought that her father had done what he did out of duty but now she could understand that love, even if it was a different sort of it, had been one of the factors for his choice.

Suddenly she felt wetness on her cheeks, was she crying? Her conscience started to slip away; Jack had thrown her to the ground with his weight and his hands were slowly crushing her windpipe; blue eyes looked upwards and she noticed that a couple of tears had slipped from his eyes, as he looked at her with an expression that screamed “Stop me”. Elizabeth was starting to feel dizzy and she merely mouthed “Can’t. Sorry” so much she’d add, perhaps she could have confessed her newfound emotions, but what would be the point? It would change nothing and only bring more pain.

Determination flashed in his expression and with a raw cry he threw himself away from her; blue eyes went wide with amazement, could he fight it? Could he break free? Before she could ask Jack he picked the same gold club as he had used against Andrew, repeating the process with his own head.

Elizabeth rushed to his side panicking, the room had started to crumble before but now it looked as if it could bury them at any given moment; luckily Tenebaum appeared with a bunch of little sisters and between them all they could drag him away to safety where the scientist would be able to examine him.

While the blonde was resting Elizabeth couldn’t help but ask how he had fought the conditioning, wondering if the scientist could provide an answer. A mysterious smile appeared in the older woman’s face as she spoke “I only have a theory for you: Suchong made his experiment based on pure science, but there were factors he couldn’t control. The same factor that moved me to turn into the ‘mother’ of these girls, the factor that moved you to not shot that gun against him” Tenebaum turned around to start her work “Go to rest meine liebe, I doubt that this will be the last that you shall see of Fontaine”


	5. Meet and Greet

Elizabeth had spent the last weekes living with Tenenbaum and her girls. The little sisters that roamed through rapture, protected by Big Daddies unlike Elizabeth that ventured always on her own, mainly to assist the doctor.

Today was a mix of both, she had been informed by the scientist about a stranger roaming the streets of Rapture; considering the secrecy of the underwater city location there was only one possibility: the savior had arrived, the downfall of this rotten corner of the sea. She had imagined plenty of scenarios, hypothesis about how their first meeting would go.

None matched reality of course, and now she found herself as a possible shield, in front of one of the little sisters as Atlas’ voice echoed in the room; it spurred the blonde to take the ADAM from the child so that he could enhance his skills. What if he intended to make hi way through rapture leaving more than splicer corpses? Perhaps he vision hadn’t been as accurate as she had thought.

“I have no ill intentions, but I won’t hesitate to attack someone that would harm a child”. There was defiance in her voice, as she pointed her gun at him, in a stance between defensive and willing to pull the trigger if necessary. “They are just girls that deserved better” a layer of pleading was added to her tone, an attempt towards persuading him out of harvesting the ADAM “With your help we can give them that; I will help you but save them with the tool that the doctor provided” the point was to save the girls, if he was here to cause harm…well, then perhaps Rapture was far too gone to be saved.

Apparently her talk was successful (or perhaps he never meant to obey Atlas in the first place); the young man stance relaxed before he lowered his own weapon, a gesture of trust to show that he meant no harm towards the woman or her charge. “Please miss, tell me how I can help” his tone was low and firm, despite of the fact that deep down he was probably as scared as the little child that stared back at him, with those unnatural yellow eyes.

With a delicate touch she hushed the young girl, murmuring shooting nonsense in her ear, in an attempt to calm her before the procedure. It was painful to watch but after the process a ‘healthy looking’ girl was placed on the ground and for the first time in a long while Elizabeth smiled genuinely “It worked!” so perhaps there was hope, perhaps her vision was accurate.

The merely blinked, still processing the change that had happened in front of his eyes “Ah. Um. I am Jack, a pleasure to meet you” his words were polite but the way he spoke was slightly awkward; Elizabeth didn’t know if it was due to the current circumstances or not very developed social skills, but it was a nice contrast to the sort of men she had dealt with since she arrived.

“Thank you for your assistance Jack, in return I can offer you a partnership, with only one condition; I’d rather keep my profile low when it comes to Atlas…the details of our past interactions aren’t pleasant” said Elizabeth trying to be vague about it “I am not asking you to trust me, I am asking you to work with me”

"I will do as you asked Miss. Don't worry, I wont tell Atlas about you." He said a bit more composed now “but would you mind telling me your name? or any way to address you”  
The brunette hesitated for a moment, she could lie but something moved her towards sincerity 

“Elizabeth”


End file.
